> imagine car manufacturers are somewhat tired of always building HUDs and in vehicle control systems. So gradually standardizing on a way to take all the displays/touchscreens in a vehicle and let them be run by Carplay seems like the future.
What is then remaining as distinctive feature of a car vendor? The design?
With their custom entertainment system they can confront they driver with their own brand identity and differentiate how they integrate the different features.
But with EVs the engines aren't as different as fossil fuel engines, they don't have their gear shifting with that adjustment anymore. Lots of brand vlauebis lost and becomes obvious to the buyer that cars are 95% the same across brands.
Another anecdote, but this is exactly how I chose my last car. I went to CarMax, filtered by CarPlay integration, and then chose from what was available. In fact, the lack of CarPlay integration is one of the main reasons I didn't consider a Tesla at the time.
From basic things like a snappy interface and keeping my podcasts in sync, to suggesting the destination based on the recent maps search I did from my phone on the way to the car, the attention to detail makes it a better experience. I don't particularly get any joy out of driving. I just want to get to my destination safely and quickly, and CarPlay makes the process less taxing.
The last few times I’ve rented a car it’s had CarPlay and based on those experiences, the next time I buy a car, it must have CarPlay. The experience without it is just so poor (and don’t get me started on how ridiculously bad the experience of pairing bluetooth is in my parent’s car which requires a mix of voice commands and button presses in a completely undiscoverable way).
Eh I've had decent experiences with BT in cars, there are some truly terrible implementations out there though.
My current vehicle doesn't have a functional BT connection, because some idiot put it behind a voice activation (and the mic broke).
I don't think this is the long term future, though - I've seen it work really well, if consumers actually start caring about how to connect to their cars it will work better.
BT will always "just work" - Android Auto and Carplay (never used) are enterprise monstrosities you must sign your soul for in blood that don't work on Thursdays, by comparison.
Yeah yeah I'm sure it does some app thing but I honestly don't car, what with cellphones becoming less reliable over time. I only want to play music in my car, BT works great (once it is setup).
My experience with CarPlay has been rock solid in four different cars from four different manufacturers. I was able to connect in about a minute in every case (the longest time for connection was the first rental car with CarPlay where I didn’t realize it was there until I plugged my phone into the USB jack to charge—this was in 2018 and it was wired CarPlay).
In contrast, the BlueTooth in the car that I own typically takes about half a block to a block’s driving before it actually connects to my phone, occasionally refuses to connect or will pair but not send audio. There’s some weird interaction between Overcast and the car’s Bluetooth that means that if I’m listening to a podcast when I turn off the car, I need to restart Overcast before it will send audio to any output (including the car when I get back in).
I don’t understand the “you must sign your soul for in blood” claim, unless you’re an open source absolutist (or maybe Android Auto is really bad, I don’t know), but your claims don’t match my experience.
yup! me too. Thats how i ended up buying a new car instead of a recent second-hand version of the same. Carplay was an absolute non-negotiable must have.
With a large screen capable of CarPlay with enough real estate for navigation etc? Most everything is custom OEM sizing/fit/etc these days , gone are the days of interchangeable single-cd headunits
Custom OEM size/fit has been addressed to some degree for a quite a while now by both the "mainstream" car audio manufacturers [1] and, more extensively, by some lesser-known aftermarket brands [2].
YMMV based on just how old your car is and the type of OEM head unit, but there are kits (e.g. this one for a 2016+ Honda Civic [3]) that allow you to install "standard" head units with a fit/style similar to OEM.
Yes, I was considering replacing my 2013 Honda Fit but just got a double-height Pioneer radio (AVH-2400NEX iirc) installed by an audio dealer.
It works perfectly, kept the existing car controls and I still have a car that mysteriously fits your entire apartment inside it while also not being subjected to a CVT.
In the US, lack of CarPlay really only removes Tesla from consideration at this point. Everything else, from Ferrari to Kia, supports CarPlay. Is there another holdout I’m missing?
I can see it especially if the various models are "similar" - I chose my last used car from Hertz from a field of two - based on how well the iPhone played music with the radio. Other than that the cars were functionally identical for me.
Same. My car has Carplay, while my wife's doesn't. Guess which one we discuss selling? A large part of that is the better integration of media. Its hard to go back to a propped up cellphone in a holder with bluetooth, once you've used Carplay.
Cabin usability and ergonomics are a huge selling point. CarPlay & HUDs are just one piece of that, but it a critical piece of the overall usability experience.
Getting into a car that has a pre-CarPlay infotainment system feels like stepping back decades in time even though the car may only be a few years old. Slow, unresponsive, buggy, and just extremely unpleasant and unnatural to use.
IMO, cars that predate screen-based infotainment systems have aged far better than pre-CarPlay systems. OEMs are just disastrously bad and behind the times at building a quality infotainment system. Mirroring the smartphone that everyone already has is a fantastic solution.
It's a very good thing that CarPlay shifts so much of the responsibility out of the car and into the smartphone, something that is much more easily and frequently upgraded.
The exception to this is ~2009 era BMWs with professional Nav, which feels just as snappy and good as my 2022 replacement for it. My large survey of a decade of rental cars suggests that almost nothing else has a screen that isn’t blurry.
It's in my top 3 criteria along with reliability and energy efficiency. Performance is probably dead last for me, assuming some reasonable floor (i.e. I can safely merge onto the highway).
It's something I'm going to interact with on a near daily basis, so it's important that it doesn't piss me off.
I didn’t buy my Audi for the HUD (or other UI) but I’m unlikely to buy another one after:
1. The Android based entertainment system regularly crashes.
2. The non-android based digital center cluster is designed so poorly as to have the date in two to three places and fuel levels hidden by default.
3. Safety systems that will needlessly engage the brakes because it believes that driving past the backed up left turn lane on a gently curving road is an imminent head on collision.
I’ve learned to work around these issues for the most part. Disabling all the wireless hardware reduces, but does not eliminate entertainment crashes. I memorized the steering wheel dial flicks to get the fuel gauge to display. I turn off the safety features.
Most of the car is very nice. The software stack is honestly something Audi should have outsourced to a competent development team elsewhere in the automotive industry.
Me. Just about any car is fine as far as performance goes. All I really care about are the creature comforts in the cabin and the infotainment system (or whatever they call it now) is a big part of that.
It was definitely a factor for us, especially as more cars move to all Software interfaces. A laggy or unintuitive system ranges from annoying everyday to dangerous.
After buying a RAM, I carefully consider software quality.
Sometimes the GPS azimuth data gets out of sync, which is annoying. However, the dealbreaker is that the transmission has some software bug where it overheats if you drive for more than an hour or so in certain circumstances. (Turning it off and waiting five minutes reboots it enough to get it to do whatever it needs to do to cool itself off.)
Sometimes we get a dreaded error message like this on the dashboard: "Drive to destination without switching into reverse or turning off. The vehicle might not turn back on.", which means the drivetrain computer cannot talk to the transmission, and it is stuck in a random gear.
Also, there was a safety recall software update. Applying it broke the state machine transitions for the push button ignition switch. (If you see a Ram owner accidentally re-start their engine after parking, this is why.)
Other Fiats (or whatever they renamed themselves to) are apparently on the same drivetrain software platform and have similar problems. All of the above things happened in warranty and none are fixable, from what we can gather.
It also had a bug where sometimes the cruise control wouldn't disengage unless you stood on the brake pedal while forcing the shift knob past an interlock and into neutral. They fixed that with the software update that broke the ignition switch.
We're eagerly awaiting the day when we can upgrade to an EV pickup truck from another company.
The GMC we had before the Ram was even worse. It was even more likely to strand itself, and the ABS / traction control liked to unexpectedly engage. Also, we had many mechanical issues. Like RAM, we had difficulty getting GMC to honor the warranty (with < 100 miles on the odometer).
The only reason I’m considering upgrading my 2011 Audi to a newer one is the technology. The car itself is great but it’s got crappy stop start features, crappy audio/infotainment tech, bad A/C etc.
It is relatively cheap to upgrade the infotainment systems on most cars. Apple and android compatible systems start as low as $350.
I did a self install on a 2010 ford Escape after my kids killed the radio (by inserting pennies into the cd slot…). Between that upgrade and new tires it was like driving a new car.
Speaking as somebody who doesn't care at all about cars, the primary things that would drive my car purchase would be:
- Cost (per unit distance in fuel, maintenance, etc)
- Comfort (which includes integration with other software, ie Carplay)
I don't care about "performance"; I don't even know what that means, and frankly I don't care. The car needs to get from my house to some other point on the map and back cheaply and comfortably.
By performance I mean the comfort of driving on the road. I used to have an anemic car which sputtered every time it drove. The engine was fine, the mechanic said, just weak. So now I look for a comfortable drive. It doesn't have to be a racecar, but it should be powerful enough to have a smooth ride.
Well, I'd say there's a difference between HUD and infotainment. I might be influenced in a car decision by the actual HUD and its useful features (for example: the blind spot cameras on some new cars), but the infotainment screen between the driver and passenger is almost always just an annoying barrier between me and having the music/podcasts/whatever + maps from my phone playing in the car.
I'm getting a lot of responses and it seems I can't edit my previous comment. To clarify, I mean who buys cars primarily for their built-in infotainment system that's not Android Auto or Apple CarPlay? If a car has either one, then I don't really care what it comes built-in with because I won't be using it. Beyond that, other factors are necessary too such as MPG as I mentioned.
If you mean the infotainment system or head unit, I think lots of people place a very high value on usability. Depending on much you rely on navigation or use apps for audio, high quality UI goes a long way.
Fortunately if you also want to prioritize performance, mileage, etc., CarPlay makes it a lot easier to tolerate a lackluster factory interface.
I've only test driven a few cars equipped with HUDs, but it's a super cool feature. I can see the value of a car that projects nav directions in addition to the more standard things like current speed. There's even phone apps you can use to simulate a HUD, if you keep your windshield clean.
My wife has a previous gen RAV4. I have a current gen Corolla Hybrid. The interface is VERY similar. However, she has a physical play/pause button on her RAV4 while my Corolla does not. This is INCREDIBLY frustrating because when you start the car, it MIGHT automatically resume your media. Sometimes this is OK, but other times, it is interrupting a conversation and losing your spot in the podcast you're listening to. A pause button is the perfect solution. However, in the Corolla, you have to wait about 30 seconds before you can tap the touch screen to switch to the audio touch controls, then wait a second or so before you can tap the touch screen pause button.
TLDR: Toyota removed the physical play/pause button and it's really annoying.
I forgot to mention, it's even worse! There is still a perfectly usable, unused button available to be a play/pause button! There are two knobs, each press-able. The one on the right does nothing when you press it. It SHOULD be the physical play/pause button and I have no idea why it's not.
Not really my wife’s BMW and my Jeep are both SUVs. They are pretty different and Jeep has started offering off road Hybrids. Eventually both companies will offer full EVs in existing lineups. The BMW is much better to drive but I wouldn’t take it off road. EVs will continue to fill the niche gaps their consumers want.
Same energy as complaining about not being able to provide customer with "dazzling box cover art design" because digital downloads made shelf boxes irrelevant.
Cars have handling, space, looks... just about everything else other than the dash/touchscreen is meaningful competition space.
Yeah, we sold cars for the better part of a century without digital entertainment systems, so we can go back to that not being a differential.
Particularly when it seems like none of these bespoke entertainment systems raise the bar, and instead the standard seems to be “not annoying and in the way.”
What is then remaining as distinctive feature of a car vendor? The design?
With their custom entertainment system they can confront they driver with their own brand identity and differentiate how they integrate the different features.
But with EVs the engines aren't as different as fossil fuel engines, they don't have their gear shifting with that adjustment anymore. Lots of brand vlauebis lost and becomes obvious to the buyer that cars are 95% the same across brands.